'TweetFest' Seeks to Shame Media on Gosnell Blackout

Outraged at the lack of media coverage of the murder trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell, pro-life groups are organizing a "TweetFest" Friday from noon to midnight to bring attention to the trial and the media's lack of coverage.

Mass murder, particularly the mass murder of infants, typically receives much attention from the press. Testimony from witnesses in the trial has also been full of sensational, gruesome details that newsrooms typically yearn for. "If it bleeds, it leads," the motto goes. The national media, though, has barely mentioned the story.

There have been no mentions of the Gosnell trial since it began on NBC, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, or PBS Newshour. CNN and National Public Radio have each mentioned it once. Exceptions to this media blackout are the more conservative Fox News and local media in Philadelphia, where the trial is taking place. The Philadelphia Enquirer has run hundreds of articles about the trial.

The TweetFest, sponsored by Operation Rescue, Priests for Life, Stand True and AbortionWiki, is asking participants to post tweets and status updates about the Gosnell trial to their Twitter and Facebook accounts, and contact their local media to ask them why they are not covering the case if they are not doing so.

"We are going to make 'new media' work on behalf of Kermit Gosnell's innocent, helpless victims. The mainstream media is acting like nothing is happening, however – if we unite & spread the word far enough, we can FORCE the media to cover this horrific story," the TweetFest Facebook event page states.

Gosnell is accused of murdering seven newborn babies and one abortion patient. He, or an assistant, would sever the heads of the babies – babies that he failed to terminate while they were still in the mother's womb, where the termination would still be considered legal.

"I did it once and I didn't do it again because it gave me the creeps," testified Lynda Williams, one of Gosnell's assistants who has already pleaded guilty to third degree murder.

"Let me state the obvious. This should be front page news," Kirsten Powers wrote Thursday in an editorial for USA Today.

Powers is a pro-life Democrat who once worked in the Clinton White House. She recalled the "non-stop media hysteria" when talk radio host Rush Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke a "slut."

"Yet," Powers wrote, "accusations of babies having their head severed – a major human rights story if there ever was one – doesn't make the cut."

Powers also argued that the trial points to the immorality of late-term abortions, because, if Gosnell had been successful in the abortion procedure and took the life of the infant before it was delivered from the mother's womb, he would not have been considered a murderer under the law.

"Regardless of such quibbles, about whether Gosnell was killing the infants one second after they left the womb instead of partially inside or completely inside the womb – as in a routine late-term abortion – is merely a matter of geography. That one is murder and the other is a legal procedure is morally irreconcilable," Powers wrote.